Page 34 of Montana Memory

This was the first time I’d cried, and now that the dam was broken, I couldn’t seem to stop.

Hunter walked over and pulled me into his arms. He didn’t try to get me to stop, or whisper meaningless words. He just stood there, strong and solid, as my emotions crashed against him.

Eventually, I exhausted myself. He led me over to the couch and helped me sit down.

“Why are you even here? Why are you helping me when all it’s done is cause you pain and trouble?”

For a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer.

“I know what it’s like to not recognize the person in the mirror,” he finally said. “To wake up and feel like a stranger in your own skin. To wonder if you’ll ever be okay again. Not because of a drug, granted, but I still understand the feeling.” His jaw ticked, his throat working as he swallowed. “I know what it’s like to be afraid of your own mind. The nightmares. The exhaustion. The not knowing if you’ll ever feel normal again.”

My breath hitched.

Hunter’s voice softened, but it didn’t lose its intensity. “If I can help you, I want to.”

I blinked hard, trying to clear the tears that still clung to my lashes. “I don’t know what to do.”

He crouched in front of me, his hands bracing on his knees. “I do.”

I studied him, searching his face. “What?”

His gaze didn’t waver. “I know where we can go. If you don’t mind trusting me.”

A shiver ran down my spine. Trust wasn’t something that came easy—not when my whole life was a blank slate. But Hunter had been the one constant in all of this. The only thing that felt solid when everything else was slipping away.

He hadn’t let me fall on that damned rooftop, and he wasn’t going to let me fall now.

I exhaled shakily. “Okay.”

His eyes flickered with something unreadable, something fierce. His fingers brushed against my cheek, warm and grounding.

And then he kissed me.

Soft at first. Seeking. Like he was letting me decide if I wanted this. If I wantedhim.

I did.

I leaned into him, my fingers gripping his shirt, holding on to him like he was the only thing tethering me to this world. Maybe he was.

His lips were firm, like the man himself. Gentle, but not hesitant. I moaned as his hand slid into my hair, rooting me to him.

Eventually, he pulled back, and I let out a small whimper of protest. He kissed my forehead. “We both need to get some sleep. It’s been a traumatic day. When we decide to do this, I want us both to know for sure it’s for the right reasons.”

When. Not if. Somehow that made it okay.

Chapter 12

Hunter

The road stretched endlessly ahead, the two-lane highway cutting through the vast Montana wilderness, mountains rising in the distance, dark silhouettes. The sun was sinking, washing everything in shades of gold and amber, the kind of view that usually settled something deep in my chest.

Not tonight.

Jada was curled up in the passenger seat, her body turned slightly toward me, her arms tucked against her chest. She looked small, delicate in a way I knew wasn’t true. I’d seen her fight—not physically, but to understand, to survive. But asleep, the tension that almost constantly surrounded her in the sharp edges of her expression had smoothed out.

Just Jada. A woman with no past.

She’d trusted me last night, pressing against me when we’d kissed like I was the only solid thing she had left to hold on to. And maybe I was. That thought sat heavy, uncomfortable. I wasn’t the guy people relied on. Not anymore. But she’d lookedup at me, eyes searching, and I’d given her something I didn’t even realize I had left to offer.

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